Olympian defends her sport against drug implications

Court reporter for The Age

Dean Robinson - who worked with Kerri Pottharst in the lead-up to the 2004 Athens Olympics - has been stood down by Essendon pending the outcome of an investigation by the Australian sports anti-doping authority. Photo: Scott Barbour

Olympic gold medallist Kerri Pottharst has made an impassioned defence of her sport of beach volleyball, claiming it is clean despite a link to one of the central figures in the Essendon supplements scandal.

Robinson was this week stood down by Essendon pending the outcome of an investigation by the Australian sports anti-doping authority and the AFL over whether supplements Essendon players took last year were illegal.

Pottharst, the president of the Australian Beach Volleyball Commission, defended Robinson's involvement with her sport, saying he never raised any suspicion of pushing the boundary of fairness.

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"When Dean Robinson and I worked together, the only thing he ever supplied for us was motivation and a push to do more, harder work in the gym and on the sand. Never at one point did he suggest doing anything other than that," she said today.

"Absolutely no injections and I just want to say at this point that any athlete who allows themselves to be injected or takes a supplement that they're unaware of is absolutely stupid in my book."

Pottharst, who partnered Cook to win the Olympic gold medal in Sydney in 2000, also insisted beach volleyball was a completely clean sport, despite the findings of the Australian Crime Commission's report, which found widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs in Australian sport.

"We are extremely proud in our sport of beach volleyball that we have never had a positive drug test," Pottharst said